Tuesday, March 12, 2013

What Would the Greeks Have Thought of Gay Marriage?

“The great classical philosophers would have regarded it as
an absurdity, despite their partial tolerance of homosexual love.”

The central insight of
classical Greek philosophy is that the order of the city is the order of the
soul writ large. If there is disorder in the city, it is because of disorder in
the souls of its citizens. This is why virtue in the lives of the citizens is
necessary for a well-ordered polis. This notion is reflected in the Athenian’s
statement concerning the political benefits of the virtue of chastity.

….

This is why Aristotle
forbids adultery, wants to make it disgraceful in all circumstances, not only
because it subverts virtue, but because it attacks the political foundations of
society. Adultery becomes a political problem because it violates chastity,
which is indispensable to a rightly ordered polis. There is no comparable
condemnation of adultery in homosexual marriage in Aristotle because such an
institution would have been inconceivable to him, as it has been throughout
history until recent times. That is because it is a self-contradiction. Marriage
cannot be based on an act which is in itself a violation of chastity, because
something cannot be its opposite. A homosexual household would not make sense
to Aristotle since it could not contain parents and all the generational
relations that spring from them, which makes the polis possible. What did not
make sense then still does not make sense now, and for the same reasons.

2357 Homosexuality
refers to relations between men or between women who experience an exclusive or
predominant sexual attraction toward persons of the same sex. It has taken a
great variety of forms through the centuries and in different cultures. Its
psychological genesis remains largely unexplained. Basing itself on Sacred
Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity,141
tradition has always declared that "homosexual acts are intrinsically
disordered."142 They are contrary to the natural law. They close the
sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and
sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved.

2358 The number of men
and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. This
inclination, which is objectively disordered, constitutes for most of them a
trial. They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every
sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons
are called to fulfill God's will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to
unite to the sacrifice of the Lord's Cross the difficulties they may encounter
from their condition.

2359 Homosexual
persons are called to chastity. By the virtues of self-mastery that teach them
inner freedom, at times by the support of disinterested friendship, by prayer
and sacramental grace, they can and should gradually and resolutely approach
Christian perfection.